Investment Program Research Articles

Rate Base the Charge Space


 
 
 To fight climate change and support the transition to a zero- emissions transportation sector, the United States is setting out to build a huge fleet of electric vehicle (EV) charging stations. But EV charging infrastructure—often called EV supply equipment (EVSE)—is expensive, and how to pay for it is not straightforward. This Article explores the emerging law and policy of using the bill payments of millions of electric utility customers to solve the problem. State utility regulators, in obscure technical proceedings, have begun directing billions of ratepayer dollars toward EVSE. Is this an unfair and risky social spending experiment, as its opponents argue? Or is it a sensible economic investment that will save ratepayers money, even while responding strategically to shifting market conditions, supporting domestic manufacturing, and achieving environmental goals, as its proponents contend? State regulators, one by one, have been reaching the same conclusion: The environmental, energy, and economic policy considerations are aligned, and the ratepayer funding approach makes sense, provided appropriate ratepayer protections are in place. To shine a light on these developments, this Article presents the findings of a fifty-state (plus D.C. and Puerto Rico) review of regulatory proceedings, revealing the full extent of authorized utility spending, the wide variety of EVSE investment program elements, the broad range of reasoning that regulators have found persuasive, and the protections that regulators have put in place to ensure ratepayer benefit. The Article demonstrates that support for utility EV infrastructure spending is not the sole province of states with progressive climate politics; that new federal funding is augmenting, but not displacing, utility investment; and that public utilities commissions have concluded that utility EV infrastructure investment can provide benefits that may not be provided by the private or public sectors.
 
 

Соціальні наслідки дефолтів

The article examines the social consequences that a probable default can have for the country’s population, as well as the essence of the concept of "default", types of defaults, their causes and consequences for the country’s economy in the short and long term. If a default occurs, it becomes necessary to reduce the budget deficit, i.e. to increase revenues or reduce expenditures. But if the economic situation is difficult, then you should not expect more income. Accordingly, the country reduces spending, which means a reduction in social or investment programs of the state. As a rule, these are capital expenditures that can be reduced relatively imperceptibly for the population. However, the consequences become noticeable in the following periods, as the infrastructure in the country deteriorates. To analyze the consequences of default, three countries - Argentina, Mexico and Russia - were considered. The social consequences of defaults for these countries are suggested to be interpreted by such indicators as the moderate poverty index, the unemployment rate, GDP per employed person, and the Gini coefficient. A comparison of indicators of the level of poverty, unemployment and labor productivity in the period before and after the default was made for these countries. The consequences of Russia’s technical default in 2022 and the impact of sanctions packages on the country’s economy as a result of a full-scale invasion of Ukraine are also analyzed. A state that has declared default will not be able to get new loans, and it loses the confidence of foreign investors. This will reduce the inflow of currency into the country, which will lead to the depreciation of the national currency. By the way, the currency reaching its peak values is a standard phenomenon for countries after the announcement of default. In addition, since the impossibility of obtaining new loans and attracting investments for business will make taxes the only source of filling the budget, social programs (in particular, subsidies), benefits and pensions will be the first to be cut. At the same time, the default is accompanied by sharp inflation, which makes the goods of domestic exporters more competitive. If the country, after announcing the default, was able to get out of the crisis, and even better – its economy shows growth, then the default can be considered successful. The main task of the default for a certain time is to reduce the tax burden. However, it is necessary to understand several important things. Since, after the declaration of default, the inflow of foreign investments will either stop completely or will be greatly reduced, the correct distribution of taxes as the only source of filling the state budget is very important. The exchange rate of the national currency begins to fall, because the inflow of investments decreases. At the same time, some investors who invested or were going to invest in private companies in this country are trying to withdraw their dividends or abandon their investments. That is, there is a decrease in the exchange rate and a decrease in economic growth.

Problems of Energy Security in the South Caucasus after the August 2008 War

The article is devoted to the energy component of regional relations in the South Caucasus after the Caucasian crisis of 2008. The problems in the export of energy resources from the region that arose as a result of the Russian-Georgian armed conflict in August 2008 are revealed. There is a desire of the European Union and Turkey to fill the gap in the implementation of investment programs, including energy, after the rupture of relations between Georgia and Russia and the weakening of their role in the energy sector in the South Caucasus. It is stated that in the conditions of increased competition in the region, a formula for energy export routes has not been developed that satisfies all interested parties. In this regard, the Nabucco project could contribute to solving this problem, but the European Union did not have the tools to help resolve conflicts in the South Caucasus. This reduced the effectiveness of its efforts to transport energy carriers and, at the same time, significantly increased the role of Turkey in the creation of Turkey’s interests in regional cooperation with Russia are traced, and its increased role in the creation and operation of key energy pipelines in the South Caucasus is revealed. A general analysis of the geopolitical situation in the region after the August 2008 war concluded that the global economic crisis, lack of investment in the energy sector, and the growing influence of Russia and China in the region were key factors complicating the creation of a reliably functioning East-West energy transportation corridor through the South Caucasus. vvvv

DETERMINATION OF GENERAL SYSTEM DETERMINANTS OF THE DYNAMIC DEVELOPMENT OF CONSTRUCTION ENTERPRISES IN VENTURE INVESTMENT CONCEPTS

The scientific and applied task of increasing the accuracy of determining the estimated cost of a construction object (EСCO) requires new methods of solution, especially for construction objects that are planned for inclusion in the investment program. Until now, there is no complete information about the processes of formation of the ECCO and the system of management decisions that ensure planning, regulation and cost control during the implementation of investment programs. What is needed is not just information, but a knowledge base, which, as the analysis showed, is rather characterized by its absence, since the composition of the input data and the requirements for them have not been determined for the justification of the ECCO and its management. To solve this task, it is advisable to create an organizational and economic mechanism for the management of the ECCO, the key blocks of which are the developed economic-mathematical model of the ECCO and the organizational model of the ECCO management in order to provide informational support and interaction of construction stakeholders. Within the framework of the research methodology, the conceptual and methodological foundations of the implementation of the project of strategic innovative changes for construction stakeholder enterprises are justified: these foundations are formed through the integration of methodical platforms of enterprise economy, strategic management and construction development, which is considered as a target project and a regulated environment for achieving the planned improvements of the enterprise by stakeholders and changing the company's position on the market of construction works and services through the implementation of the intra-company strategic innovation project. The key to the success of the application of the created methodological basis for the needs of adaptation and development of the construction enterprise is the properly identified "state of adaptability of the enterprise and identified maturity to the implementation of changes." Within such identification, the limits of the situational-strategic maturity of the implementation of changes for the enterprise-stakeholder are stratified, and the economic features of the processes that take place in the enterprise at each level of maturity are summarized. It was determined that the provision of innovative processes for their development is provided by venture capital investment, each of which is characterized by the structuring of management technologies and the state of formation of the information and communication space.

Update of construction organization models in the context of their adaptability to modern management and digital technologies

The construction industry has a significantly higher degree of fragmentation of process characteristics compared to other types of activity, which are determined by an extremely high level of dynamism of the economic environment, where enterprises are constantly faced with the need to adapt to market transformations, an integral component of which are organizational and structural changes (transformation of the structure, regimes functioning, connections and relations between the components of the economic and production system of the enterprise as an object of management). The formation of development as an innovative investment infrastructure of a construction project has a dual purpose: on the one hand, it acts as an objective indicator of the level of competitiveness of the enterprise, which allows the investor to have a clear idea of the level of investment attractiveness of the enterprise as an object of external investment; on the other hand, as a tool for diagnosing the state of implementation of the investment program and making relevant functional and investment decisions. An innovative process-oriented toolkit for evaluating and selecting options for a portfolio of construction projects is proposed, the content of which is adapted: to the content of the operational activities of the developer as one of the leading subjects of the construction and investment process and to the nature of the structure of the developer company operating in a multi-project business environment as administrator, coordinator and regulator of the processes of initiation, preparation and implementation of construction investment projects. The scientific-methodical and analytical results of the study provide the construction stakeholder enterprise with the proper economic balance of the processes of functioning in the environment of the development project and in the digitally adapted space of formalized strategic coordinates, provide project implementing enterprises with a scientific rationale for the essential growth of adaptogenic characteristics and the choice of an option to substantially improve the state of competitiveness of the enterprise : the results of the work collectively update the scientific and methodological basis of economics and management of construction enterprises.

ВЛИЯНИЕ ИНВЕСТИРОВАНИЯ В ОСНОВНОЙ КАПИТАЛ НА СОЦИАЛЬНОЭКОНОМИЧЕСКОЕ РАЗВИТИЕ РЕГИОНА

The article analyzes the problem of the development of regions as socio-economic systems under the influence of the factor of investment in fixed assets. Using the example of the Central Federal District regions, the differences between regions in the level of per capita GDP by region are investigated, depending on the per capita investment in fixed assets. The article concludes that there is a need for economic justification of regional and interregional investment programs based on the aggregated production function of the region, which allows a differentiated approach to each region depending on the current conditions of its development.

Public investment and human capital with segmented labour markets

Abstract We develop a dynamic general equilibrium macroeconomic model with segmented labour markets and efficiency wages to examine how labour market structures influence the impact of human capital investment in low-income countries. For plausible calibration values, public investment in education is much more effective than infrastructure investment in promoting long-run economic development, but because investment in education affects labour productivity with a lag, policymakers face an intertemporal trade-off which depends on their social discount rate and the weight of distributional objectives in the social welfare function. We show the distortionary structure of labour markets matters in leveraging welfare gains from public investment and in shifting the optimal public investment programme further in favour of human capital, relative to the case of flex-wage full-employment labour markets.

Transformation of State Islamic Higher Education Institutions in Small District Cities

The purpose of this study is to analyze the economic value of land conversion into educational investment land, as well as a driver of increasing the income of the surrounding community because the main factor is the Higher Education Institution of the State Islamic University (UIN) Tulungagung which also includes an educational investment program for the long-term state. Because the growth of education also affects economic growth and vice versa. This study uses an interpretive paradigm through a qualitative approach; the type of case study uses logistic regression analysis. The source of research data is the land owner's reason for selling his land to be used as an educational institution. The results of the study [1] four factors affect the opportunity for land conversion, namely (a) the educational background of the land owner will be aware of, and the importance of Islamic education, (b) the area of land owned, (c) financial income and (d) the location that refers to on the distance to UIN Tulungagung; [2] Investment in land transfer for education because Indonesia's demographics are dominated by young people whose thinking paradigm is far ahead for the future of Islamic education for the nation's children, the focus of the Indonesian government is to invest in human resources in preparing superior Islamic Human Resources through education; [3] The use of logistic regression analysis limits generalizability, as the sample design cannot be considered to characterize all landowners in turning it into an educational investment.

Sustainability of quality of life investments based on the digital transformation

Background: In this paper, the problem of sustainability of investment activity in the direction of the high yield investment program is considered. In these financial instruments, large amounts of money are accumulated, consisting of contributions from the vast majority of the population. For example, pension funds inherent in most developed countries, insurance institutions, etc., can be indicated. Accordingly, the social significance of their activities and the impact on the quality of life of all segments of the population increase. Methods: This article outlines the methods and results aimed at the digital transformation of methods for forecasting long-term institutional investments. The authors use the method of mathematical modeling of the dynamics considering that the sustainability calculation must assume that the life cycle of citizens providing contributions is limited. The parameters of the distribution of the duration of the accumulation phase over the array of people and the time of life in the subsequent period are known. For mathematical modeling, the researchers divide the players by the time they have been present on the market. Results: The authors have developed a mathematical model in the form of a set of algorithms for calculating the sustainability of long-term institutional investments with reference to life quality indicators. Conclusions: The need to develop a methodology for assessing sustainability is dictated by the increased role of digital technologies and the ability to receive the most relevant information for analysis online.

ОЦІНКА РОБОТИ ЗАЛІЗНИЧНОГО ТРАНСПОРТУ У КОНТЕКСТІ ЦИКЛІЧНОГО РОЗВИТКУ ЕКОНОМІКИ

The economic and productionactivity of the railway industry is influenced by the cycle of economic development when economic and financial crises create special conditions for the main activity of railway transport -carrying out the transportation process. The conditions of moderneconomic dynamics must be perceived as a correlation of the route of development of the railway industry, with the obligatory consideration of economic crises in the mechanism of activity. The resulting trend of the economic cycle is the dynamics of the gross domestic product and indicative of the efficiency of the reproduction process –the volume of capital investments and freight transportation. Railway transport of Ukraine, as a key component of the country's transport sector, which provides transport services in thesphereof production, circulation, and social sphere, performs a system-forming function in the cyclical mechanism and experiences the maximum load in the process of fluctuations, which is illustrated by the statistics of freight transportation and the dynamics of the gross domestic product during two major economic crises of 2008-2009 and 2019-2020. With a decrease in indicative indicators, the railway industry loses income from the main activity and the interest of investors. A new economic upswing depends on when the demand for the industry's products –for the transportation of goods and passengers -will increase. Taking into account the fact that the economic development cycle is an objective reality, and its dynamics are a reflection of the general dynamicsof the development of modern society under the influence of scientific and technological progress, the economic entity needs to take steps to anticipate, in the phase of elevation, so that with minimal losses meet and pass the crisisphase. Regarding the railway industry, these are steps to improve the investment policy with clearly defined priorities of investment activities, sources of financing investment programs taking into account specific features, improving the policy of fixedcapital management, forming countermeasures to investment risks, with their reorientation to the market situation, market monitoring and data forecast regarding the emergence of crisis phenomena, to promptly respond to economic changes through the mechanism of investment control, the use of world-class universal management methods in management. The adaptation of the work of railway transport to the conditions of dynamic economic cycles takes place against the background of changes in the system of economic values and requires the industry to master innovative technologies aimed at increasing the efficiency of work and expanding opportunities in new markets.

Distributed Energy as a Megatrend of Audit of Investment Processes of the Energy Complex

The global trend is constantly increasing investments in strategic sectors of the economy, for example the electric power industry, which, in many countries, is becoming diversified and dispersed due to the multitude of entities investing in energy production and renewable resources, which leads to an increase in the heterogeneity of investment decisions. There is an urgent need to control the movement of investments, budget funds, as well as their development in the process of implementing investment programs of energy companies. The control of the movement of investments is the most promising direction of studying the subject of finance and audit. The increasing volume of public and private targeted investments in the energy sector and the lack of control over the effectiveness of investment projects (since each program contains several thousand lists of projects) necessitated the introduction of additional regulation of budget spending. The development of a mathematical apparatus for such regulation led to the creation in the Russian Federation of an institute of an independent public technological and price audit (TPA). The TPA is seen as a mechanism to ensure an effective project evaluation and selection process. This article describes methodological improvements using power system optimization models. The Integrated MARKAL-EFOM System (TIMES) was developed as part of the Energy Technology Systems Analysis Program of the IEA-ETSAP, an international community that uses long-term energy scenarios to conduct in-depth energy and environmental analyzes. This approach includes two different but complementary systematic approaches to energy modeling: an engineering approach and an economic approach. The same approach is used when conducting a TSA, when an investment object is evaluated as a set of technological and price parameters. The article considers a model of resource allocation in the energy sector and a mechanism for using TPA for investment projects with state participation in a natural monopoly. An approach to the financial and long-term distribution of investments of electric power companies based on the search for a balance of interests of the supplier and consumer and available energy sources is proposed. A model has been developed to find the optimal plan of technical solutions, taking into account the balance of the possibilities of the electric power industry and the needs of the economy. The relevance of the article is due to the requirements of investment efficiency, since the prevailing share in the costs is occupied by the costs of equipment and the construction of power plants.

A Study of Citizenship on Investment Programs: Past, Present and Future, and Survey on Its Acceptance by HNI Clients

Following Malta's choice to sell its citizenship in 2013, the request for citizenship by venture (CBI) programs soared. Caribbean legislatures, then again, have been "selling" their citizenship for quite a while, much before Malta. This article unloads the variables that empower the sending of CBI programs and investigates their ability to help financial improvement in a "group of countries" - for example, the five Caribbean nations that run CBI programs utilizing a contextual investigation procedure. It likewise sees how outsiders (like unfamiliar state-run administrations) see residents of CBI-allowing countries, contending that the outer political expenses of speculative double-dealing of these nations' citizenship might offset the financial advantages.
 Malta was the subject of heated debate in the European Parliament in January 2014. The island state had set up a citizenship-in-exchange-for-business-transactions scheme, intended to be used as an economic policy tool to gather and make ‘money,' with citizenship and hence migration rights as its lure. It is ruling also meant that European citizenship would be bestowed. Both politicians and academics viewed the Maltese citizenship-by-investment program (CIP) as akin to "selling" the EU's primary status, and it was widely panned: Several articles on the subject have brought criticisms such as "programs corrode democracy," "they undermine citizenship," and "CIPs enhance global inequity."

Instruments and Resources for Sustainable Development Acceleration of Agribusiness in Ukraine

Agribusiness in Ukraine takes one of the most important places in the national economy, but not all subjects conduct it sustainably, because of the lack of resources to finance such transformations. Therefore, it is necessary to investigate the instruments of resource attracting for Sustainable Development Acceleration of Agribusiness in Ukraine. The aim of the article is to determine the current state of basic tools which are used to obtain resources for accelerating the sustainable development of agribusiness in Ukraine, namely agriculture insurance, green bonds and impact investment. The article uses a situational analysis, a monographic method, tabular and graphical methods, scientific generalization to analyze the experience of the use of agriculture insurance, green bonds and impact investment as tools to accelerate the sustainable development of agribusiness. The information sources for this research were the reports of the International Finance Corporation, the sustainability reports of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the reports of the United Nations Development Program in Ukraine. The study of the practice of using agriculture insurance, green bonds and impact investment as tools to accelerate the sustainable development of agribusiness in Ukraine made it possible to determine the embryonic level of their use. This is indicated by the modeling of the development of the agriculture insurance in Ukraine, which showed that this type of insurance is formal and does not perform a real protective function. As for projects, the resources of which are attracted through green bonds and impact investment programs, they are fragmentary and need to be more systemic. This work is one of the first which looks into the practice of applying tools to accelerate the sustainable development of agribusiness in Ukraine, in the context of three dimensions and achieving sustainable development goals. For the further development of both agriculture insurance and green bonds, it is necessary to stimulate the emission of such debt securities by insurance companies and to develop not only insurance of primary agricultural products, but also processed ones, exporting of which brings more foreign exchange earnings to Ukraine. This study aims to highlight current practices in the application of tools to accelerate the sustainable development of agribusiness in Ukraine, including agriculture insurance, green bonds and impact investment, which represent the basis for their promotion and prevalence in the scientific community and among agribusiness professionals.

Державна підтримка розвитку громад в умовах фінансової децентралізації

Узагальнено повноваження органів місцевого самоврядування та ресурсне забезпечення їх реалізації. Розглянуто напрями державної фінансової підтримки розвитку громад в умовах децентралізації влади. Визначено можливості економічного розвитку громад за рахунок державної підтримки. Обґрунтовано необхідність стимулювання створення та розвитку економічно спроможних громад.

The global polarisation of remote work.

The Covid-19 pandemic has led to the rise of digitally enabled remote work with consequences for the global division of labour. Remote work could connect labour markets, but it might also increase spatial polarisation. However, our understanding of the geographies of remote work is limited. Specifically, in how far could remote work connect employers and workers in different countries? Does it bring jobs to rural areas because of lower living costs, or does it concentrate in large cities? And how do skill requirements affect competition for employment and wages? We use data from a fully remote labour market-an online labour platform-to show that remote platform work is polarised along three dimensions. First, countries are globally divided: North American, European, and South Asian remote platform workers attract most jobs, while many Global South countries participate only marginally. Secondly, remote jobs are pulled to large cities; rural areas fall behind. Thirdly, remote work is polarised along the skill axis: workers with in-demand skills attract profitable jobs, while others face intense competition and obtain low wages. The findings suggest that agglomerative forces linked to the unequal spatial distribution of skills, human capital, and opportunities shape the global geography of remote work. These forces pull remote work to places with institutions that foster specialisation and complex economic activities, i. e. metropolitan areas focused on information and communication technologies. Locations without access to these enabling institutions-in many cases, rural areas-fall behind. To make remote work an effective tool for economic and rural development, it would need to be complemented by local skill-building, infrastructure investment, and labour market programmes.

The Modernization of Routes and New Railway Lines: Different Viewpoints and Instruments for Commercial Objective

This article presents the concept of “objective travel time” as a key variable in railway line modernization decision making. The concept tries to achieve a threefold goal: optimization of economic resources, significant presence of the railway in the market share of the corridor, and a positive operational balance. The concept has been successfully applied in the new Rail Investment Program in Spain.

Drivers of Postharvest Loss among Citrus Farmers in Eastern Cape Province of South Africa: A Zero-Inflated Poisson (ZIP) Regression Model Analysis

Reducing postharvest losses (PHLs) in the South African citrus industry is fundamental in ensuring food, income, and nutrition security. However, there is limited knowledge on the extent of postharvest losses, their diversity, and the associated inhibiting factors. These factors compromise postharvest loss management strategies and how they can be scaled up across production zones in South Africa. The study adopted a pragmatic philosophy to assess the magnitude and diversity of PHLs for citrus crops and assess the determining factors. A standardized questionnaire was administered to 137 citrus producers from the Eastern Cape Province’s three production zones. Multistage sampling which combined purposive and stratified proportionate sampling was utilized to select the province, production zones, and farmers. The study employed the embedded research approach with a zero-inflated Poisson (ZIP) model. The countfit and Vuong tests were used in Stata 15 to ascertain and correct for overdispersion and inflated zeros while isolating the model which best fitted the data. The ZIP regression model indicated that social (e.g., marital status, education, age), economic (e.g., yield), institutional (e.g., markets, extension, credit), and cross-cutting (e.g., pruning, cultivar) factors determined the magnitude of PHL exposure. Targeted and tailored capacity building on good agricultural practices in citrus production might help to reduce postharvest losses through the extension pillar. The production of Nova and Navel citrus cultivars may be promoted when these cultivars are easily accessible and available to farmers while researching other traits to reduce PHL incidences. Investment programs to support the use of water-efficient drip irrigation systems need to be initiated to reduce the chances of incurring considerable postharvest losses. Likewise, pest and disease control in citrus production should be intensified and targeted. Subsidized support for the maintenance of citrus plantations should be provided by the government and other stakeholders, such as citrus production associations.

Factors Affecting User Retention of Mobile Mutual Fund Investment Applications: Evidence from Indonesia

Mutual fund is one of the most popular investment programs, especially among small investors. Currently, many mobile-based applications are available, facilitating the buying and selling of mutual funds. This number of choices creates competition between application developers, pressuring them to find ways to maintain user loyalty by increasing user retention rates. However, only a few studies have currently discussed user retention in mutual fund investment applications. Furthermore, previous studies never examined the quality factor of the application but instead focused more on other factors outside the application. This study analyzed the factors influencing user retention on mutual fund investment applications in Indonesia from the application’s quality and usability aspects. This study was based on the expectation-confirmation model (ECM) as the underlying theory. Data were collected using a survey questionnaire resulting in 414 responses, which were then processed and analyzed using the covariance-based structural equation modeling (CB-SEM) technique. The results of this study indicate that three variables can directly affect user retention in mutual fund investment applications: satisfaction, perceived usefulness, and perceived enjoyment. The satisfaction variable had the most significant influence of these three variables. Several factors influenced satisfaction: perceived usefulness, enjoyment, ease of use, trust, confirmation, prompt response, and security.

Research on the Multi-attribute Evaluation Model for the Investment Results of County-level Highways in New Urbanization

County-level highway, as a transport carrier to expand the external economic exchanges of rural areas, plays an important role as a hub in the rural road network system, and it is an important infrastructure for the country to promote the construction of new urbanization. In order to ensure the sustainable development of county-level highway, according to the relevant policies in China, the research on the investment effect evaluation of county-level highway projects has been regarded as a focus in the “14th Five-Year Plan”. Therefore, evaluating the investment benefits of the in-service county-level highways by identifying key evaluation factors has become an important research topic for new urbanization development. Since there is a lack of a comprehensive and reasonable evaluation index system. Therefore, this paper has taken the policy applicability and maximization of comprehensive benefits as the research goal, and started from five criteria, including new urbanization development ability, road network construction ability, economic benefits, social benefits and environmental benefits. Later, 14 second-level factors including industrial development ability, coverage of road network structure and national economic evaluation conclusion, etc., as well as a total of 58 third-level factors including the growth rate of the number of townships service industries and service industries, the increase of highway transport tools and regional urbanization growth rate, etc. were screened and constructed as the investment effect evaluation system. Subsequently, according to the characteristics of gray fuzzy of county-level highway indexes, this paper established a hybrid model applicable to the multi-attribute investment effect evaluation of new urbanization county-level highway, which used the game combination weighting method (GCWM), to combine the entropy power method and hierarchical analysis method to assign weights and reasonably calculate the comprehensive weights of indexes, and on this basis, it combined grey Euclid relational analysis method (GERAM) and the attribute theory to rank the correlation degrees of evaluation objects and further classify the investment effect level of the project. Finally, the hybrid model was applied to the county-level highway under the new urbanization construction demonstration counties to derive the optimal solution, as well as the optimization paths and measures for other auxiliary solutions. The results of this study provide an effective theoretical basis for the evaluation of the investment yield of rural transportation infrastructure with the support of policies, and provide a reliable practical method for the developing countries to achieve the maximum comprehensive benefits of the county-level highway investment programs with limited funds.

The Algerian agricultural sector between the question of food security and its implication in economic diversification strategy

AbstractThe agricultural sector in Algeria has always sparked a fascinating and captivating debate for years, in particular in the phase of economic transition started and triggered after the sharp fall in the price of the barrel and the need to adapt to the new, more liberal, and opened economic mechanism. Many scientific writings were devoted to this subject, in particular O. Bessaoud, S. Bedrani, M. Boukella, A. Daoudi, A. Djennane, and others, trying to demonstrate and approve the crucial role played by this sector in the national economy, others to enumerate and identify the hiccups and obstacles to the smooth running of it, but the result remains that agriculture (in all its branches and sub‐activities) does not seem to reach its cruising speed and is content just to meet the expectations and needs of domestic consumers, with particular attention to the prices and quality of products and goods supplied. Of course, we must not deny the efforts made by the State to revive this sector, through the investment programs and the financial envelopes granted, the most resounding consists in the PNDAR (National Agricultural and Rural Development Program) at the beginning 2000, but the result shows a deplorable situation, which does not find a real argument and explanation, despite the innumerable interventions of local administrations (banks, taxes, insurance, justice, customs, and others). So we find ourselves faced with a state of affairs that hardly favors a serious enough reflection on the future deadlines of the sector, in particular in a context where the question of food security arises acutely and the return to the problem of economic diversification (in which a more preponderant and crucial role is reserved for the agricultural sector) is making a strong comeback on the national scene. Our main problem is as follows: “Could the agricultural sector in Algeria succeed to guarantee food security and a contribution in the economic diversification of the State.” For this purpose, some findings can be traced such as the economic perspectives of agriculture, the question of food security, the future of Algerian economy, the policy and strategy of economic diversification, and others. The main results expected turned mainly about the evolution of agricultural products for food consumption, the tools to manage the policy of food security, the means used to realize the economic diversification, and the nature of relation between the agricultural sector and the economic diversification. The scientific methods to be exploited in this paper will be mainly a descriptive analysis based on exploring the agricultural production, the food's consumption evolution, and the evolution of some macroeconomic indicators. Regarding this fact, we will try, in this paper, to seriously and objectively examine what role this sector can play in a double vision: ensuring food security for the population and getting involved in economic diversification initiatives for better economic international competitiveness.